Federal immigration authorities made 20 detainees during a traffic blitz in Avon on Tuesday.
According to those sources, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) collaborated with the Avon Police Department to execute several dozen traffic stops across town to detain illegal immigrants.
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The arrests are not documented in any police records from Avon, nor are they listed in the public log of the Hendricks County Jail.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed they were involved in the operation.
“We did not conduct traffic stops as the FBI is not authorized to conduct those,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We were there to assist Avon Police and ICE/ERO with any needed federal warrants.”
He stated that his police carried out a “traffic blitz” in the Avon area, making multiple stops for traffic offenses, registration violations, and aggressive driving.
“During a few of these traffic stops, our police officers encountered undocumented and/or unlicensed foreign nationals,” Chief Stoops wrote. “Avon Police officers requested assistance from Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents. Agents responded to the traffic stop location and assisted with identifying the foreign nationals and conducted their own investigation into the status of those individuals.”
Stoops stated in his statement that his department collaborates with all federal law enforcement agencies and if they need assistance, his officers will respond.
According to Lisa Koop of the National Immigrant Justice Center, ICE employs local law enforcement to evade the normal judicial process. According to Koop, authorities must have probable cause to make a warrantless arrest.
“If they are seeking to circumvent those requirements and bypass the need to establish that they’ve gotten the administrative warrant or that they’ve established probable caused to make an arrest, then a convenient shortcut would be to lean on local police,” Koop explained. “[They can] make what may or may not be a legitimate traffic stop and if they have someone in criminal legal custody…it makes it a whole lot easier for ICE to come in and apprehend someone and initiate deportation proceedings.”
Koop says it’s still unclear if that approach is legal. She feels that police need a legitimate basis to halt someone.
“If police are only pulling over people who look like they might be immigrants in their view, then yes, it’s racial profiling,” Koop said. “Whether there’s probable cause to make any kind of arrest, criminal or immigration related, I think is called into question.”
“There are some portions of our strategic operational planning that we do not share publicly to ensure the safety of our officers and to protect them in the future and to ensure mission success,” Stoops said. “As I stated in my previous email, we reciprocate with all federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies when it comes to assisting with law enforcement operations and actions.”
